The president of the German Bishops’ Conference and the Bishop of Magdeburg expressed their shock and offered prayers after a car attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany on Friday, December 20 left five people dead and more than 200 injured.
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, the conference presi-dent, said the “attack in Magde-burg leaves us speechless. The horror, grief, and sympathy are felt today by many people through-out Germany and worldwide.”
He continued: “Our thoughts and prayers are in Magdeburg during these hours. As churches, we mourn with the relatives of the victims of this terrible attack and pray for the injured and the deceased, as well as for their relatives who now fear for their loved ones.”
Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg issued a statement immediately after the attack on Friday evening. “I think of those affected, their relatives, and the emergency services and include them in my prayers,” he said. “Especially in these days and before a feast where the message of God’s love, human dignity, and the longing for a healed world particularly move us, such an act is all the more frightening and abysmal.” Feige also said the attack presented “a challenge for our society to counter any extremism even more decisively and to work even more for peaceful coexistence.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visited the city earlier in the day to meet local officials and pay their respects at the site of the attack.